Wednesday, September 28, 2016

September

It's finally fall here in New Orleans and though its been unbearably hot all month as I'm outside today it finally feels pleasant! We are now in block 4 covering cardiovascular which for this block is only taught through Med Pharm. Today was the first TBL of the program and going in I felt very anxious, but on conclusion I thought it was a helpful learning exercise and I thought it was really fun to work with my awesome group (who were really helpful!!) to come up with answers to some difficult questions.
This month I started volunteering at The Terraces which is a unique community for elderly residents. I found this volunteering opportunity through Volunteers of America and because of their lengthy background requirements I have not been able to work with the residents yet and have only assisted the staff there. Tomorrow I have a meeting with the staff and I will finally be placed in a group to focus on helping in a particular unit. I am so excited to finally meet the residents I will be assisting and even more excited to start building a kinship with them.
The next learning block is the renal block and I can't wait. After working on the CRIC and SPRINT trials here at Tulane I have become particularly fond of the topics surrounding CKD and blood pressure. I think a lot of the information we are learning now will be of particular use in the next block and this block is very dense so there will be a lot of studying in the next week and a half before the CV block exam.
Hours this month- Terraces- 6 hours